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Plea for ban on GM crops

Staff Reporter

F Farmers opting for Bt cotton in bad shape: DDS Director

Sangareddy: The Andhra Pradesh Coalition in Defence of Diversity has asked the Medak administration to ban genetically engineered crops in the district, particularly Bt cotton.

Addressing the press here on Tuesday, Convener of the Coalition and Director of Deccan Development Society, P.V.Sateesh, disclosed that the five years of study that the Coalition had done in Warangal district had showed that the farmers who opted for Bt cotton were in bad shape than those that had opted for regular cotton.

He said that the studies by Abdul Khayyum, a retired joint director of agriculture, showed that the chilli crop sown after Bt cotton dried up due to an attack of root rot, which was very peculiar to this region.

`GM opposition' month

A large number of women farmers of the Pastapur-based Deccan Development Society, which is a member of the Coalition, submitted a memorandum to the District Collector demanding restrictions on the International Crop Research Institute for Semi Arid Tropics (Icrisat) and other State level research institutions from working on genetically modified crops, steps to promote ecological farming, promotion of dryland agriculture and adding millets to the public distribution system.

Earlier, the farmers formed a human chain in front of Icrisat and demanded that the international research institution should immediately stop receiving research funding from firms that produce GM crops. P.V.Sateesh submitted a petition to the Deputy Director General of Icrisat.

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